JP2005333586A - Interphone - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain an interphone having a function for reproducing a voice of a telephone conversation with a partner's telephone conversation apparatus or a voice recording a message to be listened by the partner's telephone conversation apparatus in which a sound volume can be brought into an appropriate level at the time of reproduction. <P>SOLUTION: A reproducing section 20 comprises a recording signal processing section 21 for reproducing a telephone conversation signal stored at a data storage section 30, a first sound volume regulating section 22 for outputting a digital telephone conversation signal reproduced at the recording signal processing section 21 to a transmission signal path while regulating the sound volume, and a second sound volume regulating section 23 for outputting a digital telephone conversation signal reproduced at the recording signal processing section 21 to a reception signal path while regulating the sound volume. A sound volume of a voice outputted from the speaker of the partner's telephone conversation apparatus or its own speaker 2 (reception signal and transmission signal) can be brought into an appropriate level by regulating sound volumes of the reception signal and the transmission signal at the first and the second sound volume regulating sections 22 and 23. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an intercom device having a playback function for playing back a recorded voice such as a call voice with a call device of the other party or a message to be heard by the call device of the other party.

Conventionally, intercom equipment (main unit) installed in each dwelling unit of an apartment house such as a condominium, intercom unit installed outside each dwelling unit (for example, at the entrance), and lobby intercom installed at a common entrance In an intercom system consisting of the following functions, when a call is received from the intercom handset or lobby intercom, a response message recorded in advance is played and played through the speaker of the calling device of the caller to be heard by the visitor In some cases, the master unit has a function of recording a message of a visitor in the absence or a voice during a call and reproducing the recorded voice (see Patent Document 1).
JP 2002-57803 A

  However, when playing back a response message or call voice recorded on the master unit, when playing the reproduced voice from the speaker of the master unit, when outputting from the speaker of the intercom handset, or when outputting from the speaker of the lobby intercom Since the optimum sound volume is different for each of the above, there are cases where the sound volume is low and difficult to hear when the sound is played back, and conversely, the sound volume is too high and may be harsh.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an intercom device capable of setting the sound volume during reproduction to an appropriate level.

  In order to achieve the above object, the invention of claim 1 is an interphone device that is installed in a house and performs a two-way loudspeaking call through a communication path that is appropriately formed with a telephone device installed outside the house. A microphone and a speaker, a speech signal collected by the microphone and a speech signal processing means for realizing a two-way speech communication by processing a speech signal transmitted from the other party's speech device and a speech signal; Storage means for storing the transmission signal, reception means stored in the storage means and reproduction means for reproducing the transmission signal and sending it to the other party's telephone device, reception signal and transmission signal reproduced by the reproduction means And a first sound volume adjusting means for adjusting the sound volume.

  According to the present invention, by adjusting the volume of the received signal and the transmitted signal by the first volume adjusting means, the volume of the sound (received signal and transmitted signal) output from the speaker of the other party's telephone device is set appropriately. Can be at any level.

  In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 2 is an interphone device that is installed in a house and performs a two-way loudspeaking call through a communication path that is appropriately formed with a telephone device installed outside the house. A microphone and a speaker, a speech signal collected by the microphone and a speech signal processing means for realizing a two-way speech communication by processing a speech signal transmitted from the other party's speech device and a speech signal; Storage means for storing the transmission signal, reproduction means for reproducing the reception signal and transmission signal stored in the storage means and sending them to the speaker, and volume of the reception signal and transmission signal reproduced by the reproduction means. And a second volume adjusting means for adjusting.

  According to the present invention, by adjusting the volume of the received signal and the transmitted signal by the second volume adjusting means, the volume of the sound output from its own speaker can be set to an appropriate level.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the present invention, the silent period detecting means for detecting a silent period in which there is no voice of the received signal and the transmitted signal reproduced by the reproducing means, and the silent period detection And a silent period attenuating means for attenuating the received signal and the transmitted signal reproduced by the reproducing means during the silent period detected by the means.

  According to the present invention, by attenuating a signal in a silent period that can be regarded as having no sound, unnecessary sounds other than the sound such as background noise are not output from the speaker, so that the sound can be clearly reproduced.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the invention, the silent period detecting means for detecting a silence period that can be regarded as having no sound of the received signal and the transmitted signal reproduced by the reproducing means, and the silent period detecting means And a silent period attenuating means for attenuating the received signal and the transmitted signal reproduced by the reproducing means during the silent period.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to clearly reproduce the sound because unnecessary sound is not output from the speaker by attenuating the signal of the silent period that can be regarded as having no sound.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a housing in which the microphone and the speaker and the respective means are accommodated, and a frequency at which the volume of the received signal and the transmitted signal varies depending on the acoustic radiation characteristics of the housing. The stored frequency storage means, and the correction means for correcting the volume at the frequency read from the frequency storage means for the reception signal and the transmission signal reproduced by the reproduction means and outputting to the second volume adjustment means. It is characterized by that.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to reproduce the sound with the optimum volume by correcting the fluctuation of the volume of the sound (received signal and transmitted signal) due to the acoustic radiation characteristics of the housing.

  According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, the frequency storage means for storing the frequency at which the volume of the received signal and the transmitted signal fluctuates depending on the acoustic radiation characteristics of the casing of the telephone device for each of a plurality of types of telephone devices. And a correction means for correcting the volume at a frequency corresponding to the type of the communication device of the other party to which the received signal and the transmission signal reproduced by the reproduction means are output to the first volume adjustment means. And a frequency setting means for reading out the frequency corresponding to the type of the other party's telephone device from the frequency storage means and setting the frequency in the correction means when the reproduction means reproduces.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to reproduce the sound with the optimum volume by correcting the volume fluctuation of the sound (received signal and transmitted signal) caused by the acoustic radiation characteristic of the casing of the counterpart telephone equipment.

  The invention according to claim 7 is the storage means for storing the received signal and the transmitted signal from which the non-voice period is removed in any one of claims 1 to 3, or the invention of claim 5 or 6, and the storage means stores the received signal. And a reproducing means for inserting a silent period of a predetermined time into a portion from which the silent period has been removed when reproducing the received signal and the transmitted signal.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to reproduce the sound from which the silent period has been removed without feeling uncomfortable.

  According to the present invention, by adjusting the volume of the reception signal and the transmission signal by the first or second volume adjustment means, the sound (the reception signal and the transmission signal) output from the speaker of the other party's telephone device or from the own speaker. There is an effect that the volume of the speech signal) can be adjusted to an appropriate level.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to an interphone master unit (hereinafter abbreviated as “master unit”) used in an interphone system as described in the conventional example will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment 1)
As shown in FIG. 1, the base unit M, which is an interphone device according to the present embodiment, has two lines connected to a microphone 1 and a speaker 2 and a telephone device such as an interphone handset or lobby interphone (not shown). A four-line conversion unit 3, a voice call processing unit 4 provided in the middle of a transmission signal path from the microphone 1 to the two-wire four-line conversion unit 3 and a reception signal path from the two-line four-line conversion unit 3 to the speaker 2; A microphone amplifier 5 for amplifying a speech signal collected by the microphone 1, an A / D converter 6 for converting an analog speech signal amplified by the microphone amplifier 5 into a digital speech signal, and a speech communication processing unit D / A converter 7 that converts the digital speech signal processed in step 4 into an analog speech signal, and an analog speech signal output from D / A converter 7 is amplified. The transmission side line amplifier 8, the reception side line amplifier 9 that amplifies the analog reception signal sent through the communication line from the other party's telephone device, and the analog reception signal amplified by the reception side line amplifier 9 are digitally converted. A / D converter 10 that converts the received signal into a received signal, a D / A converter 11 that converts the digital received signal processed by the loud speech processing unit 4 into an analog received signal, and the D / A converter 11 outputs the received signal. A speaker amplifier 12 that amplifies an analog received signal and outputs the amplified signal to the speaker 2, a data storage unit 30 that stores data obtained by compressing a transmission signal and a received signal (hereinafter referred to as “call signal”), and a data storage unit 30 And a reproducing unit 20 that reproduces a call signal by performing signal processing on the data stored therein.

  The loudspeaker call processing unit 4 has an unpleasant echo (acoustic echo or acoustic echo) due to an acoustic return path formed by acoustic coupling between the microphone 1 and the speaker 2 or a line-side return path formed between the other telephone equipment. (Line echo) is heard, or a closed loop in which the loop gain in an arbitrary frequency component exceeds 1 times is formed in the communication system due to the feedback path or the like, and howling occurs at the frequency. For this purpose, first and second echo cancellers EC1 and EC2 and a voice switch VSW are provided.

  Although not shown, the first echo canceller EC1 has a conventionally known configuration including an adaptive filter and a subtractor, and an impulse of a feedback path (acoustic echo path) formed by acoustic coupling between the speaker 2 and the microphone 1. The response is adaptively identified by the adaptive filter, and the acoustic echo is suppressed by subtracting the pseudo echo component (acoustic echo) estimated from the reference signal (output signal to the speaker 2) from the input signal from the microphone 1 by the subtractor. To do. The second echo canceller EC2 also has a conventionally known configuration including an adaptive filter and a subtracter, and has a reflection due to impedance mismatch between the two-wire / four-wire conversion unit 3 and the communication line, and the other telephone device ( The impulse response of the feedback path (line echo path) formed by the acoustic coupling between the speaker and the microphone in the interphone slave unit or lobby interphone is adaptively identified by the adaptive filter, and the reference signal (2-wire 4-wire conversion unit) The line echo is suppressed by subtracting the pseudo echo component (line echo) estimated from the output signal to 3) from the output signal (received signal) from the 2-wire 4-wire conversion unit 3 by a subtractor. The voice switch VSW also has a conventionally known configuration, and always estimates the call state (sending state, receiving state) from the signal level of the transmission signal and the reception signal, and for example, inserts a loss into one of the signal paths. By doing so, the call state is switched. The first and second echo cancellers EC1 and EC2 and the voice switch VSW in the present embodiment control the DSP (digital signal processor) hardware by the echo canceller and voice switch software (program). Is realized.

  The reproducing unit 20 reproduces the call signal stored in the data storage unit 30, and adjusts the volume of the digital call signal reproduced by the recording signal processing unit 21 so as to be in the transmission signal path. A first volume adjusting unit 22 for outputting, and a second volume adjusting unit 23 for adjusting the volume of the digital call signal reproduced by the recording signal processing unit 21 and outputting it to the reception signal path. Here, although illustration and detailed description are omitted, the call signal is compressed by a compression method such as ADPCM (Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Moudulation), and the compressed data (call data) is rewritable nonvolatile memory (EEPROM, etc.) The master unit M is provided with a recording means for writing to and storing (recording) in the data storage unit 30, and the recording signal processing unit 21 reads and expands the call data stored (recorded) in the data storage unit 30. Signal processing is performed. Note that the playback unit 20 in the present embodiment uses a DSP common to the first and second echo cancellers EC1 and EC2 and the audio switch VSW, and controls the DSP hardware with dedicated software (program). It is realized by.

  By the way, the base unit M according to the present embodiment, when a visitor cannot respond to a call from the calling device by a visitor due to absence or busyness, sends a pre-recorded response message (sending signal) to the speaker of the calling device. A message (answering signal) that the visitor leaves in response to the response message is recorded (hereinafter referred to as “answering function”), and a call (calling signal and transmission) with the caller by the calling device. Signal) (hereinafter referred to as “call recording function”). When the response message is reproduced, the volume of the response message (transmission signal) is adjusted to an appropriate level for the other party's telephone device by the first volume adjustment unit 22 and then output to the transmission signal path. When reproducing a visitor's message or call, the second volume adjustment unit 23 adjusts the volume of the message or call (received signal) to an appropriate level according to the speaker 2 of the main unit M before receiving the received signal. Output to the route.

  Thus, in the base unit M of the present embodiment, the volume of the reception signal and the transmission signal is adjusted by the first or second volume adjustment unit 22, 23, so that the speaker of the other party's telephone device or its own speaker is adjusted. The volume of the sound (received signal and transmitted signal) output from 2 can be set to an appropriate level.

  By the way, if the ambient sound in the house is stored in the data storage unit 30 together with the response message, and the response message and the ambient sound are synthesized and reproduced at the time of reproduction, it is as if the housekeeper actually responds to the visitor. It can make you feel like it is. For example, by recording a sound around the kitchen as an ambient sound in advance and recording a response message indicating that it cannot be released now, even if the housekeeper is actually away, On the other hand, it can be made to think that it cannot be released now in the kitchen. Also, if the volume of the response message and ambient sound can be adjusted individually, for example, if you want to reduce the volume of both the response message and ambient sound at night, or if you want to hear the response message clearly, the response message The user-friendliness can be improved by increasing the volume only.

(Embodiment 2)
As shown in FIG. 2, the basic unit M of the present embodiment has the same basic configuration as that of the first embodiment. Therefore, the same components are denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof is omitted.

  In the present embodiment, a silent period detecting unit 24 that detects a silent period in which there is no voice of a call signal expanded by the recording signal processing unit 21, and a call in a silent period detected by the silent period detecting unit 24. A characteristic is that the reproduction unit 20 includes a silent period attenuation unit 25 that attenuates a signal.

  The silent period detecting unit 24 estimates the instantaneous power of the call signal (transmitted signal or received signal) and the background noise power included in the call signal, and compares the instantaneous power estimated value with a predetermined threshold value. The logical product of the result and the comparison result of the ratio of the instantaneous power estimated value and the background noise power estimated value (= instantaneous power estimated value / background noise power estimated value) compared with a predetermined reference value is obtained, and the instantaneous power estimated value is When the ratio is greater than the threshold and the ratio between the instantaneous power estimate value and the background noise power estimate value is greater than the reference value, it is determined as a voice period, and other cases are determined as a non-voice period (no-voice period) It is. Here, the threshold value is a threshold value that defines the minimum level of the audio signal, and the reference value is a value that defines the minimum ratio between the audio signal level and the background noise level.

  The silent period attenuation processing unit 25, when the silent period detecting unit 24 does not detect a silent period (during a voice period), directly transmits the call signal to the first or second volume adjusting unit 22, 23. When the silent period detecting unit 24 detects the silent period (during the silent period), the call signal is attenuated and output to the first or second volume adjusting unit 22 or 23. . The silent period detection unit 24 and the silent period attenuation processing unit 25 are realized by using a DSP common to the playback unit 20 and controlling the DSP hardware by software (program).

  Thus, in this embodiment, the silent period detection unit 24 detects the silent period of the speech signal expanded by the recording signal processing unit 21, and the silent period attenuation processing unit 25 attenuates the speech signal during the silent period. Therefore, unnecessary sounds other than the sound such as background noise are not output from the other party's call device or the speaker 2 of the other party, and the sound can be reproduced clearly.

  By the way, the instantaneous power of the call signal is estimated, a period in which the instantaneous power estimate exceeds a predetermined threshold is determined as a voiced period in which sound exists, and a period in which the instantaneous power estimate is equal to or less than the threshold is determined. A silent period detector that determines that there is a silent period that can be regarded as non-existent, and when the silent period detector does not detect a silent period (during a voiced period), the first or second volume adjustment is performed without changing the call signal. A silent period attenuation processing unit that outputs to the first or second volume adjusting unit 22, 23 after the call signal is attenuated when the silent period detecting unit detects the silent period. The reproduction unit 20 may be provided instead of the silent period detection unit 24 and the silent period attenuation processing unit 25, respectively. By thus attenuating the speech signal during the silent period, unnecessary sound is not reproduced and the voice can be reproduced more clearly.

(Embodiment 3)
As shown in FIG. 3, the base unit M of the present embodiment has the same basic configuration as that of the first embodiment. Therefore, the same reference numerals are given to the common components and the description thereof is omitted.

  By the way, the base unit M is configured by housing all the structural requirements such as the microphone 1, the speaker 2, and the voice call processing unit 4 shown in FIG. 3 in a casing (not shown) made of, for example, a synthetic resin. Has been. However, the volume of the sound may fluctuate due to the attenuation of the call signal at a specific frequency due to the acoustic radiation characteristics of the housing, or conversely, the call signal resonates at a specific frequency. Similarly, the volume of the volume due to the acoustic radiation characteristics of the casing may also vary in the other party's telephone equipment, and since the shape and size of the casing differs depending on the type of telephone equipment, the acoustic radiation characteristics are also natural. It will be different.

  Therefore, in the base unit M of the present embodiment, a specific frequency at which the call signal is attenuated or resonates due to the acoustic radiation characteristics of the case of not only its own case but also the other party's call device (such as an intercom handset or lobby interphone) is set as a parameter A parameter storage unit 31 serving as a frequency storage means, a control unit 32 that reads out a parameter of a specific frequency stored in the parameter storage unit 31 and supplies the parameter to the reproduction unit 20, and a call at a characteristic frequency supplied from the control unit 32 And a frequency correction unit 26 for correcting the volume of the signal.

  The parameter storage unit 31 is composed of a rewritable nonvolatile memory (EEPROM, etc.), etc., and investigates the acoustic radiation characteristics of the base unit M and the casing of the other party's telephone device in advance, and the specific frequency found by the investigation is used as a parameter. Stored. The control unit 32 is composed of a CPU, a memory, and the like, and realizes the control of a one-chip DSP that realizes the voice call processing unit 4 and the playback unit 20, the above-mentioned answering function and call recording function, and the like. When a response message or message in the answering machine function is played back, or when a call signal recorded by the call recording function is played back, the specific frequency stored in the parameter storage unit 31 is read out and given to the playback unit 20 composed of a DSP to correct the frequency. A specific frequency is set in the unit 26.

  For example, when outputting the response message reproduced by the reproduction unit 20 from the speaker of the other party's call device, the control unit 32 reads the specific frequency corresponding to the call device from the parameter storage unit 31 and sets it in the frequency correction unit 26. The frequency correction unit 26 corrects (increases or decreases) the volume of the call signal (response message) at the set specific frequency, and then outputs it to the first volume adjustment unit 22. Alternatively, when the call voice reproduced by the reproduction unit 20 is output from the speaker 2 of the parent device M, the control unit 32 reads the specific frequency corresponding to the parent device M from the parameter storage unit 31 and sets it in the frequency correction unit 26. The frequency correction unit 26 corrects the volume of the call signal at the set specific frequency, and then outputs it to the second volume adjustment unit 23.

  Thus, in the base unit M of the present embodiment, the sound is reproduced with the optimum volume by correcting the fluctuation of the sound volume due to the acoustic radiation characteristics of the own casing and the casing of the other party's telephone equipment. It is something that can be done.

(Embodiment 4)
As shown in FIG. 4, the base unit M of the present embodiment has the same basic configuration as that of the first embodiment.

  By the way, when recording a response message, a message, or a call voice, if the call signal in the silent period is removed and only the call signal in the voice period is recorded, the memory capacity required for recording in the data storage unit 30 can be reduced. However, when the data from which the speech signal during the silent period is removed during recording is reproduced, the voice and the voice are unnaturally connected, which may give a sense of incongruity.

  Therefore, in the base unit M of the present embodiment, a recording silent period detection unit that detects a portion in which a silent period is removed from the call signal expanded by the recording signal processing unit 21 (hereinafter referred to as “silent period during recording”). 27 and a silent period insertion unit 28 for inserting a predetermined period of silence into the recording silent period detected by the recording silent period detection unit 27 is provided in the playback unit 20. Here, in the recording means (not shown), when the call signal is compressed to create the call data, a process of setting a flag is performed when the silent period is removed from the call signal. The silent period during recording is detected by detecting this flag. Note that both the recording silent period detecting unit 27 and the silent period inserting unit 28 are realized by using a DSP common to the reproducing unit 20 and controlling the DSP hardware by software (program).

  Thus, in the present embodiment, when the call data from which the silent period is removed is reproduced, the silent period is inserted into the silent period during recording, so that an appropriate silent period is generated between the voice and the voice. It is possible to naturally reproduce the call voice (including response messages and messages) without feeling uncomfortable due to the unnatural connection between the voice and the voice.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a first embodiment. FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a second embodiment. FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a third embodiment. FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating a fourth embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

M Interphone main unit 1 Microphone 2 Speaker 4 Loud call processing unit 20 Playback unit 21 Recording signal processing unit 22 First volume adjustment unit 23 Second volume adjustment unit 30 Data storage unit

Claims (7)

  An intercom device that performs two-way loudspeaking calls through a communication path that is appropriately formed between a telephone device installed inside a house and outside the house, and transmitting a microphone, a speaker, and a sound collected by the microphone A speech signal processing means for realizing a two-way speech communication by processing a speech signal and a reception signal sent from the other party's speech device, a storage means for storing the reception signal and the speech signal, and a storage means Reproduction means for reproducing the received reception signal and transmission signal and sending them to the other party's call device; and first volume adjustment means for adjusting the volume of the reception signal and transmission signal reproduced by the reproduction means. Intercom equipment characterized by that.   An intercom device that performs two-way loudspeaking calls through a communication path that is appropriately formed between a telephone device installed inside a house and outside the house, and transmitting a microphone, a speaker, and a sound collected by the microphone A speech signal processing means for realizing a two-way speech communication by processing a speech signal and a reception signal sent from the other party's speech device, a storage means for storing the reception signal and the speech signal, and a storage means And a second volume adjusting unit for adjusting the volume of the received signal and the transmitted signal reproduced by the reproducing unit. Interphone equipment.   The reception signal reproduced by the reproduction means and the silent period detection means for detecting a silent period in which there is no voice of the transmission signal, and the reception signal reproduced by the reproduction means during the silent period detected by the silent period detection means The interphone device according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising a silent period attenuation means for attenuating the transmission signal.   The reception signal to be reproduced by the reproduction means and the silence period detection means for detecting a silence period in which there is no sound of the transmission signal, and the reception signal and the transmission signal to be reproduced by the reproduction means during the silence period detected by the silence period detection means The interphone device according to claim 1, further comprising a silent period attenuating unit for attenuating noise.   A microphone and a speaker and a housing in which each of the above means is housed, a frequency storage means for storing a frequency at which the volume of the received signal and the transmitted signal fluctuates due to the acoustic radiation characteristics of the housing, and a received sound reproduced by the reproducing means 3. The intercom device according to claim 2, further comprising: a correcting unit that corrects the volume at the frequency read from the frequency storage unit with respect to the signal and the transmission signal and outputs the corrected signal to the second volume adjusting unit.   Frequency storage means for storing the frequency at which the volume of the received signal and the transmitted signal fluctuates depending on the acoustic radiation characteristics of the case of the telephone equipment for each of a plurality of types of telephone equipment, and the received signal and the transmitted signal reproduced by the reproducing means Correction means for correcting the volume at a frequency corresponding to the type of the other party's telephone device to which the signal is transmitted and outputting the corrected volume to the first volume adjusting means, and the type of the other party's telephone device when reproducing by the reproduction means The intercom device according to claim 1, further comprising: a frequency setting unit that reads out a frequency according to the frequency from the frequency storage unit and sets the frequency in the correction unit.   The storage means for storing the received signal and the transmitted signal from which the silent period has been removed, and the portion from which the silent period has been removed when reproducing the received signal and the transmitted signal stored in the storage means for a predetermined time The interphone device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, or 5 or 6, further comprising the reproducing means for inserting a silent period of

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